The Presentation on How to Give a Presentation

1
The Presentation on How to Give a Presentation
2
Disclaimers

• There is no right way to do a presentation but
  there are common characteristics of good
  presentations
• Some of the stuff that I tell you might seem
  really intuitive, but I think it is sometimes
  helpful to articulate your intuitions, because
  then they become more clear
• If Im going too fast please tell me

3
Assignment

• Begin to outline a presentation only after you
  have summarized the potential presentation in a
  declarative sentence that captures the central
  idea of the message
• Do this early, about 10-14 days before your
  presentation date
• Ask yourself the question "How would I explain
  my research to a friend from another college?"
• Use this as a guide for developing the "story"
  you are going to tell your COW audience.

4
Audience

• Knowledgeable in general science
• Avoid technical detail, everyone should be able
  to understand your presentation
• Define key terms
• Explain difficult concepts
• A bit of redundancy can be very helpful
• tell them what you are going to tell them, tell
  them, then tell them what you just told them

5
General Guidlines

• Estimate about 1 minute per slide.
• A slide that takes less than 1 minute is probably
  not as effective as it could be.
• If a the general content of a slide cannot be
  understood in 4 seconds, it is often a bad one
• A slide that takes longer than 2 minutes probably
  contains too much information.
• For an 8-10 minute talk, an estimate of 8-12
  slides in addition to the title slide is probably
  good.

6
General Structure

• Title slide
• Strive first for a title that communicates
  accurately the direction of the message, and then
  see if you can reduce the number of words while
  retaining clarity.
• Outline
• This is optional.
• One advantage is that the audience knows where
  the talk is going.
• One disadvantage is that the audience knows where
  the talk is going.
• If this is used, be very careful that it does not
  steal your thunder

7
Outline of Intro
Example

• What is glaucoma?
• IOP
• Secondary degeneration
• What is Oculotrophin Protomorphogen (PMG)
  Extract?
• What is neuroprotection?
• What is ischemic-reperfusion injury?

8
General Structure

• Intro/Background (why was the project
  undertaken?)
• Start with a statement of purpose or
  significance
• Methods (what was done?)
• Results (what was learned?)
• Conclusion (what does it mean?)
• Sometimes conclusion/summary can be the same as
  the discussion

9
General Structure

• Use the same font throughout the presentation,
  recommended fonts are Times New Roman, Arial and
  Verdana
• Titles should be 44 point font, subtitles 32
  and the text 24
• Usually PowerPoint will decide what is best for
  you
• Clearly label all structures, axes and symbols in
  a slide
• Provide complete references typically at the
  bottom of the slide in a smaller font than the
  main text when using other people's work

10
General Structure

• Template
• Readability requires good contrast in colors
• Make the template consistent
• Keep the PowerPoint transitions between slides
  simple and consistent

11
A picture is worth

• Represent topics pictorially rather than with
  lots of words
• This really helps with clarity
• Pictures can be understood much more quickly than
  text
• The next four slides are early drafts of the
  three slides following the next four slides

12
What I did
Example - Bad

• Three groups of rats
• Control
• daily placebo treatment of 2 mL of water by
  gastric lavage
• Low dose experimental group (LD)
• daily dose of 3.3 mg of Oculotrophin PMG extract
  in 2 mL of water by gastric lavage
• High does experimental group (HD)
• daily dose of 6.6 mg of Oculotrophin PMG extract
  in 2 mL of water by gastric lavage

13
What I did
Example - Bad

• Duration
• Each rat received the treatment for 14 days
• Ischemic-reperfusion injury
• On the 7th day the IOP in the right eye of each
  rat was increased to 10 times the normal pressure
  for 45 minutes
• The left eye of each rat was uninjured and served
  as a control
• Explain value of this injury

14
What I did
Example - Bad
15
What I did
Example - Bad

• On the 14th day the rats were sacrificed and the
  eyes were removed
• Histological evaluation of each eye followed
• Six, 20 µm thick, frozen sections from each eye
  were obtained
• three sections from the central retina spaced 200
  µm apart
• three sections from the inner retina spaced 100
  µm apart
• All sections were then stained with cresyl violet
• Four random locations, spread as far apart as
  possible, were chosen and the cell density was
  calculated

16
Methods
Example - Good
Eye Removal
Glaucomatous Injury
Gave treatment by gastric lavage

• Treatment by gastric lavage
• Three groups of rats
• Low dose experimental group (LD)
• 3.3 mg of Oculotrophin PMG extract
• High does experimental group (HD)
• 6.6 mg of Oculotrophin PMG extract
• Control
• Control treatment of water

17
Methods
Example - Good
Eye Removal
Glaucomatous Injury
Gave treatment by gastric lavage

• Glaucomatous injury
• Right Eye
• IOP increased to 10 times the normal pressure
• 45 minutes
• Left Eye
• Uninjured and served as a control

18
Methods
Example - Good
Eye Removal
Glaucomatous Injury
Gave treatment by gastric lavage

• Eye Removal
• Histological evaluation of each eye followed
• 3 sections from each eye
• 20 µm thick
• from the central retina
• spaced 200 µm apart
• stained with cresyl violet
• The density per unit area was obtained for each
  eye

19
Effective Slides

• Slides should not be crowded nor should they have
  too much white space
• each slide should be designed to illustrate a
  particular point or perhaps to summarize a few
• The next two slides are early drafts of the two
  slides following the next two slides

20
What is glaucoma?
Example - Bad

• Secondary degeneration
• The slow loss of damaged neurons and death of
  previously healthy neurons that become injured by
  an excitotoxic cascade This is a repeat
• During ischemia excessive glutamate is released
  which causes the overstimulation of ionotropic
  glutamate (NMDA) receptors
• Overstimulation of NMDA receptors causes an
  influx of calcium through the NMDA receptor
  channel depolarizing the cell and causing voltage
  gated calcium channels to open
• increased calcium levels activate destructive
  cascades like activation of phospholipase A2,
  nucleases which act on DNA, proteases which
  disrupt ribosomes, neurofilaments and
  microtubules, oxygen-free radical synthesis and
  nitric oxide production
• All of this eventually triggers apoptosis (Check
  that)

21
What is glaucoma?
Example - Bad

• Secondary degeneration
• Treatment
• Lower glutamate
• Inhibit NMDA
• Ex. Betaxolol
• Lower Ca2 levels
• Phenytoin
• and Oculotrophin PMG?

22
RGC Loss and Glaucoma
Example - Good

• Secondary Degeneration
• The slow loss of damaged neurons and death of
  previously healthy neurons that become injured by
  an excitotoxic cascade

23
RGC Loss and Glaucoma
Example - Good

• Secondary Degeneration
• Treatment
• In the past 5 years research has been directed
  towards halting the progression of these cascades
  from one step to the other.

24
Effective Presentations

• Practice, practice, practice
• Rehearsing a paper before members of ones own
  department or group can make the difference
  between success and disaster.
• If you practice enough, you will often find that
  it is easier to give a talk without using notes
• Practice enough so that you have memorized the
  framework and concepts of your presentation
• Dont memorize the exact wording that you use,
  that can sound forced.

25
Effective Presentations

• What to memorize/rehearse
• Everything you are going to say on the first
  slide
• Once you get past the first slide often you can
  just put your mind on autopilot and before you
  know it you will be done with your presentation
• The verbal transitions between slides
• These can make the difference between an amazing
  presentation and a mediocre one.

26
Effective Presentations

• General Pointers
• Become comfortable with some silence
• Effective use of pauses can really help
• Put inflection in your voice in order to stress
  important points, dont be monotonous
• Use a pointer in order to clearly "walk" the
  audience through the ideas you are presenting.
• Speak audibly and clearly so that even those
  sitting in the back row can hear
• Make eye contact with the audience to help keep
  their interest, but not necessarily specific
  people